eG Foodblog: Darcie B - Bakin' with bacon

[miladyinsanity]

Klary, you're not the only one who wants one of those!

I've got American sized measuring cups--I've no idea how come but I do. But it irritates me to no end when recipes ask for 1 cup of butter. Do they seriously expect me to pack the butter into a cup? LOL.

I second the Orange and Dark chocolate combination.

Great blog Darcie. I know I wouldn't dare do the bacon fat cookie though.

[Swisskaese]

Klary, you're not the only one who wants one of those!

I've got American sized measuring cups--I've no idea how come but I do. But it irritates me to no end when recipes ask for 1 cup of butter. Do they seriously expect me to pack the butter into a cup? LOL.

I second the Orange and Dark chocolate combination.

Great blog Darcie. I know I wouldn't dare do the bacon fat cookie though.

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I use the Butter Conversion website to convert American butter weights (cups, sticks) into grams.

Edited January 25, 2006 by Swisskaese (log)

[daniellewiley]

Klary, you're not the only one who wants one of those!

I've got American sized measuring cups--I've no idea how come but I do. But it irritates me to no end when recipes ask for 1 cup of butter. Do they seriously expect me to pack the butter into a cup? LOL.

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Yeah, that would be pretty hard. Our butter comes in sticks that are each 1/4 cup, so for 1 cup of butter, you would use 4 sticks. Putting it in a measuring cup would not be fun at all.

[Chufi]

I use the Butter Conversion website to convert American butter weights (cups, sticks) into grams.

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that's really helpful thanks Michele!

Darcie I have a question about the bacon cookies.. is that baconfat from smoked or unsmoked bacon? and if unsmoked, how is it different from regular lard? I'm only just discovering lard and it's uses in (sweet) baking, and this is intriguing.

Edited January 25, 2006 by Chufi (log)

[SobaAddict70]

Man, I never realized bacon had this whole other life as an ingredient in sweet things ... but between these cookies and the whole bacon candy thang, my eyes have definitely been opened.

Dessert

This was IMO the most creative and interesting part.. It really was based around tofee covered bacon.. Or Bacon Brittle or whatever you want to call it.. We basically cubed bacon, fried it and covered in tofee.. It really is amazing.. Covers the bacon in a protective sweet shell forever keeping it crisp..

Beautiful

Cake.. We made a Pierre Hermes Suzy's Cake.. Put the Toffee Bacon and a Caramel Ganache in between the layers.. Covered with the glaze from the Pave cake.. Giving the cake a hard shell.. It was delicious, rich, and the bacon went really well...

Served with a 10 egg yolk vanilla custard with toffee bacon..

Thanks to Ling for the suggestion.. We made a Bacon Brioche Pudding with a sugar bourbon glaze.. This was awesome.. It really was delicious..

Amazing..

I am very thankful for what a great job my girlfriend did and what a great time I had with my friends.

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As a side note, you might want to check out this thread in our Cooking forum.

[Darcie B]

Darcie I have a question about the bacon cookies.. is that baconfat from smoked or unsmoked bacon? and if unsmoked, how is it different from regular lard? I'm only just discovering lard and it's uses in (sweet) baking, and this is intriguing.

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The bacon fat for these cookies comes from smoked bacon.

When I use lard for baking, I try to get leaf fat (fat around the kidneys in pigs) and render it. I mainly use it in pie crusts.

Maybe I need to make a chicken pot pie for dinner one evening....it's one of my favorite meals.

[Darcie B]

Before we all start throwing out ideas for your birthday cake, (not strange at all how you're doing your own, btw--I did my own this year too!) what are you favourite flavour combinations? Do you have a cake already in mind (like chocolate, or a white cake) and you're looking for filling/frosting ideas? 

I love blogs that feature a lot of baking...I will be checking your blog daily! 

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I like chocolate with orange, chocolate with raspberry, white chocolate with almost any kind of fruit, and just about any kind of butter cake/buttercream icing. That really limits it, doesn't it?

[Darcie B]

Yay, baking! I vote for an orange and chocolate cake AND a black forest cake. Blood oranges are in season, so you could make a blood orange chiffon with chocolate ganache icing and serve it with blood orange sorbet. I would love to see you make a deluxe black forest cake in that lovely kitchen of yours. I was eyeing my dried cherries today and thought they'd be mighty good soaked in kirsch overnight!

I just made a chocolate beet cake--good, but I need to fool around with it a bit more. I have to get my son to eat his vegetables somehow!

Zuke

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I'm diggin on the blood orange sorbet.

I must confess, I have never had a black forest cake. Sounds like it could be good, but I usually don't see good dried cherries here and I don't have any kirsch! However, I am remembering that I saw some dried cherries that looked pretty good recently, now if I can only remember where...

[Darcie B]

Back to bakin' with bacon. This morning I managed to bake off the bacon cookies. Here they are going into the oven:

and emerging...

You can definitely taste the bacon. They are pretty good all around; good spice flavor. I am thinking that they would be even better if I used drippings from peppered bacon and added some freshly ground pepper into the dough. I think that would really set these off.

They are quickly disappearing from the break room, along with the coconut macarooms I brought.

Then I grabbed a quick breakfast:

Oh, almost forgot to show my 2:30 a.m. snack:

I'll bet I could lose part of the 20 pounds I have gained in the last few years if I could just give up the midnight snacking

[Darcie B]

I've seen some cookie recipes that call for bacon fat, and even a few that called for duck fat recently! I'm interested in finding out how yours bacon bakin' comes out.

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Duck fat cookies? Do tell more...

[johnder]

It is funny, I made this cookies a few weeks ago and realized the recipe shouldn't really call for 1 1/2 t of extra salt. The cookies I made we toooooo salty. I guess it may have been my complilation of various bacon drippings I used, but I should have realized 1 1/2t of salt would have been too much normally anyway.

The cookie flavor was good, but they were salty enough that we had to turn them into savory cookies that we ate with cocktails.

Back to bakin' with bacon. This morning I managed to bake off the bacon cookies.

You can definitely taste the bacon. They are pretty good all around; good spice flavor. I am thinking that they would be even better if I used drippings from peppered bacon and added some freshly ground pepper into the dough. I think that would really set these off.

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[Darcie B]

It is funny, I made this cookies a few weeks ago and realized the recipe shouldn't really call for 1 1/2 t of extra salt.  The cookies I made we toooooo salty.  I guess it may have been my complilation of various bacon drippings I used, but I should have realized 1 1/2t of salt would have been too much normally anyway.

The cookie flavor was good, but they were salty enough that we had to turn them into savory cookies that we ate with cocktails.

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I wondered about that so I tasted the bacon fat. It wasn't very salty, actually. Therefore the cookies weren't too salty. But that's a great point to make.

[Eric_Malson]

No cake advice from me.  As I've gotten older, my sweet tooth has amost disappeared...

The same is true of me, except for a couple of fairly specific types of dessert.

Anyway, I'm glad I clicked on your blog, Darcie. Add me to the list of fellow-eGulleteers that has kitchen envy--I most definitely have "kitchen view" envy!

I just got back from a few days in Chicago where my new(ish) favorite ethnic restaurant is a Lithuanian one on the south side where, if their menu is any indication, those people put bacon in EVERYTHING. A cuisine after my innermost heart! On my way out, I noticed a box of rolls for sale marked "fresh bacon buns"... naturally, a few of them left with me. They turned out to be a bit like ordinary dinner rolls (actually, a lot like Chinese baked pork buns) with bacon filling in the center. Quite lovely... I bet they're amazing just out of the oven.

My paternal grandfather was born, and lived his last years, in Parkersburg, WV, but I've never set foot in the state (I think he and my father had some sort of falling out before I was born that no one ever talked about). Your blog makes we want to go explore my roots one of these days.

[Swisskaese]

I like chocolate with orange, chocolate with raspberry, white chocolate with almost any kind of fruit, and just about any kind of butter cake/buttercream icing. That really limits it, doesn't it?

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I recommend the following cakes for your birthday:

Raspberry White Chocolate Mouse Cake

Black Forest Cherry Cake is not made with dried cherries, it is made with sour cherries and you can used can ones. Do not use cherry pie filling or cherry jam or maraschino cherries. Try to find the ones that are in water, not syrup. I grew up on this cake. My uncle had a German restaurant and he made the most amazing Black Forest Cake. Unfortunately, I do not have his permission to use his recipe, but this one is similar.

[Darcie B]

Black Forest Cherry Cake is not made with dried cherries, it is made with sour cherries and you can used can ones.

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I learn something new every day!

The white chocolate mousse sounds really, really good. I think it is at the top of my list right now

but the blood orange sorbet is still beckoning too

Since the weather is like this today:

I ended up going through the drive through (I park underneath my building in a heated garage so I am spoiled!) for lunch.

Note: The salad is from the fridge at work, not from Wendy's.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better so I can take you on a tour of some of the local groceries and stuff...

Edited January 25, 2006 by Darcie B (log)

[Kouign Aman]

DarcieB, Oh my, thats a nice kitchen. The organized fridge also knocked me back on my heels. Do you give lessons? And you did all that woodwork and tile? Kudos!

WonderCup - how does it work with sticky stuff like molasses? It looks like it might become a new 'need'. And that covered the price of admission!

Birthday cake - how about almond cake with rasperry filling and dark chocolate icing?

Soba, thats obscene. Its too early for lunch & now I'm starving. Thanks for sharing.

<editted for typos>

Edited January 25, 2006 by Kouign Aman (log)

[Darcie B]

WonderCup - how does it work with sticky stuff like molasses? It looks like it might become a new 'need'. And that covered the price of admission!

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The Wonder Cup would work with something thick like molasses. It's really a pretty tight fit and would scrape most of it off the sides. However, if something were thinner like maple syrup, it *might* leak down the sides/bottom. I once poured milk in it just to see how tight it was and it did leak but fairly slowly.

If you'll notice on the one I have, the plunger is hollow and if you turn the unit upside down you can use the hollow part for liquid measurements (marked in blue, the "sticky stuff" measurements are in red).

This is the only one I have seen that does this, and it actually isn't a Wonder Cup brand product, but (I am almost embarrased to admit this) is a Pampered Chef product. About $9 USD. I have two and use them all the time. The actual "Wonder Cups" only handle the sticky type stuff.

[ludja]

Before we all start throwing out ideas for your birthday cake, (not strange at all how you're doing your own, btw--I did my own this year too!) what are you favourite flavour combinations? Do you have a cake already in mind (like chocolate, or a white cake) and you're looking for filling/frosting ideas? 

I love blogs that feature a lot of baking...I will be checking your blog daily! 

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I like chocolate with orange, chocolate with raspberry, white chocolate with almost any kind of fruit, and just about any kind of butter cake/buttercream icing. That really limits it, doesn't it?

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People have given a lot of good ideas already, but if you like coconut, a fresh coconut cream layer cake is a luscious self indulgence, and beautiful to look at as well. A few months ago I made the lauded Peninsula Grill Coconut Cream Cake.

The custard filling and the buttercream/cream cheese frosting are just great. I used freshly grated unsweetend and untoasted coconut instead of the sweetened flaked coconut in the recipe. I also used another cake recipe but the given one looks very good and I think other people on egullet have made it as well. It is a large cake; great for a crowd and/or for snaking on the week after. (I actually made a two layer cake and cut down on the frosting and filling accordingly).

One of my favorite cakes; I may make it again in a few months for my birthday!

[Darcie B]

People have given a lot of good ideas already, but if you like coconut, a fresh coconut cream layer cake is a luscious self indulgence, and beautiful to look at as well.  A few months ago I made the lauded Peninsula Grill Coconut Cream Cake. 

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Gee, I forgot to mention that I LOVE coconut. I have heard about that cake but haven't made it. I have made the Cook's Illustrated Coconut Layer Cake and liked it pretty well.

So far the contenders are the white chocolate mousse cake, some kind of chocolate/orange combo (still groovin' on the blood orange sorbet idea), and the black forest cake. I'll add the coconut cake to the list.

[Ling]

I'm a huge fan of the Peninsula Grill coconut cake, but I added more coconut and more sour cream to the filling. Also, I used unsweetened dessicated coconut b/c it was finer. I also reduce the sugar in the frosting. It's a great cake!

Edited January 25, 2006 by Ling (log)

[Genny]

Darcie,

I've been following your blog for the past couple days. Very nice job! I just love the view from your kitchen! My view is a bouganvilla bush and the wall separating my yard from the neighbors.

Snow! What a beautiful day you are having! Here in AZ it is lovely and sunny but I do like a bit of the fluffy stuff

My vote is for the white chocolate raspberry cake OR one of my favorite cakes to make of all time was out of the Death By Chocolate book by Marcel Desaulniers, I believe it was the Double Mocha Madness (I foolishly lent the book out and never got it back ). This is 2 cakes for 4 layers, I think it had a mocha butter creaam, mocha ganache and there was another component for a filling as well. A little dab will do ya!

So where are your favorite markets? Do you have good farmer's markets out ther? Are there any major family likes/dislikes that channel your cooking?

Thanks for blogging this week!

[Toliver]

This is the only one I have seen that does this, and it actually isn't a Wonder Cup brand product, but (I am almost embarrased to admit this) is a Pampered Chef product. About $9 USD. I have two and use them all the time. The actual "Wonder Cups" only handle the sticky type stuff.

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Alton Brown sells something similar on his new and improved web site. I have the Pampered Chef version and it works great.

Darcie,

I couldn't really see your stove in your kitchen picture. Is it gas or electric or something else?

[Darcie B]

So where are your favorite markets?  Do you have good farmer's markets out ther?  Are there any major family likes/dislikes that channel your cooking?

Thanks for blogging this week!

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Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get out and show you my favorite markets and stores. We have a farmer's market that is pretty decent but not much is happening there right now (reference above snow picture).

[Darcie B]

Darcie,

I couldn't really see your stove in your kitchen picture. Is it gas or electric or something else?

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Unfortunately it is an electric smooth top, and nearly matches the counters so it doesn't show up very well on the pictures.

I really want a gas cooktop and will eventually get one. We have to run a gas line through the basement and it has a drywalled ceiling that we have been loathe to tear down. It is in the "long range" (pun intended) plan. I will either get a Thermador or a DCS.

I really want to build a house with my "dream kitchen" that includes a huge pantry, but that will have to wait until DH's business gets going. The kitchen I have now is loads better than anything else I had before, so I'm not complaining.

[Zucchini Mama]

As I was walking my son to school I thought how nice it would be if you made candied blood orange peel to go on top of your choc/orange cake. You could even put bits of it in the blood orange sorbet.

My god that bacon candy is obscene!

Zuke